Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-11-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly DiscOurses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subjects concord and Dis.
cOrd.'

IENT: "Who tdld the cornerstone ttereoyt
tCheH the morning stars sang togetherf'-
Job xxxyiil, q, Z.
We have all seen the ceremony at the lay.
Ing of the cornerstone of church, asylum or
Masonic temple. Into the hollow of the
stone were placed scrolls of history and inn
prrtant documents to be suggestive if one or
Two hundred years after the building should
be destroyed by fire or torn down. We re-
memember the silver trowel or iron hammer
that smote the square piece of granite into
sanctlty. We remember some venerable man
who presided, welding the trowel or ham,
mer. We remember also the music as the
choir stood on the scattered stones and
timber of the building about to be con-
structed. The leaves of the notebooks flut-
tered in the wind and were turned over with
great rustling, and we remember how the
bass, baritone, tenor, Contralto and soprano
voices commingled. They had for many DAYS
been rehearsing the special programme, that
it might be worthy of the cornerstone laying.
In my text the poet of Uz calls us to a
grander ceremony-the laying of the founda-
ton of this great temple of a world. The
corner stone was block of light, and the
trowel was of celestial crystal All about
and on the embankments of cloud stood the
angelic choristers, unroling their lbrettos
of overture, and other worlds clapped shin
ing cymbals while the ceremony went on,
and God, the architect, by stroke of light
after stroke of light, dedicated this great
cathedral of a world, with mountains for
pillars and sky for frescoed ceiling, and
Towering fields for floors, and sunrise and
midnight aurora for upholstery Who laid
the corner stone thereof, when tine morning
stars sing together!"
The fact is that the whole universe was a
complete cadence, an unbroken dithyramb,
musical portfolio. The great sheet of inn
mensty had been spread OUT and written on
it were the stars, the smaller of them minims,
larger than ha
meteorS marked the staccato passages, the
whole heavens a gamut, with all sounds, into
nations and modulations, the space between
the worlds musical interval, trembling of
stellar light quaver, the thunder a bass
clef, the wind among trees treble clef.
That is the way God made all things, per-
feet harmony.
But one day harp string snapped in the
great orchestra. One day a voice sounded
out of tune. One day discord, harsh and
terrific, grated upon the glorious antiphony.
1t was sin that made the dissonance and th9t
harsh discord has been sounding through the
centuries All the work of Christians, and
philanthropists, and reformers of all ages, is
to stop that discord and get all things back
into the perfect harmony which was heard at
the laying Of the cornerstone when the
morning stars sang together Before | get
through, if am divinely helped, will make
it plain that sin is discord and Righteousness
is harmony.
That things in general are out Of tune is as
plain as to a musicians ear is the unhappy
clash of clarionet and bassoon in an orches-
trail rendering.
The worlds health out of tune: Weak lung
and the atmosphere in collision, disordered
eye and MONDAY light in quarrel, rheumatic
limb and damp weather in struggle, neural
gias, and pneumonias, and consumptions
and epilepsies in flocks swoop upon neighbor-
hoods and cities. Where you find one person
wit md boo, ,,o-laA
alert ear, and easy respiration, and regular
pulsation, and supple limb, and prime diges-
ton, and steady nerves, you find hundred
who have to be very careful because this, or
that. or the other physical function is dsor-
rlered.
The human intellect out of tune: The
judgment wrongly swerved, or the memory
leaky, or the will weak, or the temper in
fammable, and the wel-balanced mind excep-
tionaL Domestic life out of tune: Not only
here and there conjugal outbreak of incom-
patibillty of temper through the divorce
courts, or filial outbreak about a fathers
will through the Surrogates Court, or a case
of wife beating or husband poisoning through
the criminal courts, but thousands of fam
Tics with June outside and January within.
Society out OF tune: Labor and capital:
their hands on each others Threats. Spirit of
caste keeping those down in the social scale
in struggle to get up, and putting those
who are up in anxiety lest they have to come
down. No wonder the old p!anoforte of So
ciety is all out of tune, when hypocrisy and
lying, and subterfuge, and double dealing,
and sycophancy, and charlatanism, and re-
venge have for 5000 years being banging
away at the keys and stamping the pedals
On all sides there is perpetual shipwreck
of harmonies. Nations in discord. Without
realizing it, so wrong is the feeling of nation
for nation that the symbols chosen are fierce
and destructive In this country, where our
skies are full of robins and doves and morn
ing larks, we have for our national symbol the
fierce and filthy eagle, as immoral a bird as
can be found in all the pathological cata-
logues. In Great Britain, where they have
lambs and fallow deer, their symbol is the
merciless lion. In Russia, where from be-
tween her frozen north and blooming south
all kindly beasts dwell, they choose the growl-
ing bear; and in the worlds heraldry favor
lite figure is the dragon, which is a winged
serpent, ferociouS and dreadful. And so fond
is the world Of contention that we climb out
through the heavens and baptize one of the
other planets with the spirit of battle, and
call it Mars, after the god of war, and we give
to the eighth sign of the zodiac the name
of the scorpion, a creature which is chiefly
celebrated for its deadly sting But, after
all, these symbols are expressive of the
way nation feels toward nation. Discord
wide as the continent and bridging the seas
l suppose you have noticed how warmly in
goods stores, and how highly grocerymen
think of the sugars of the grocerymen on the
same block. And in what eulogistic way
allopathic and homeopathic doctors speak Of
each other, and how ministers will sometimes
put ministers on that beautiful cooking in
strument which the English call a spit an
iron roller with spikes on it, and turned by
crank before hot fire, and then if the min
lister being roasted cries out against it, the
men who are turning him say: "Hush,
brother! we are turning this spit for the
glory Of God and the good of your soul, and
you must be quiet while we close the service
with;
"Blest be the ties that binds
Our hearts in Christian love-"
The earth is diametered and circumfer.
enced with discord, and the music that was
rendered at the laying of the worlds corner
stone, when the morning stars sang together,
is not heard now; and though here and there,
from this and that part of society, and from
this and that part of the earth, there comes
up thrilling solo of love, or MARBLE of
worship, or a sweet duet of patience, they
are drowned out by discord that shakes
the earth.
Paul says: "The whole creation groaneth: ~
and while the nightingale, and the wood
lark, and the canary, and the plover, some
times sing so sweetly that their notes have
been written out in musical notation, and it
is found that the cuckoo sings in the KEY of
d. and that the cormorant is basso in the
winged choir, yet sportsman's gun and the
autumnal blast often leave them ruffled and
bleeding or dead in meadow or forest. Paul
was right for the groan in nature browns
out the prima donnas of the sky.
Tartini, the great musical composer,
dreamed one night that he made contract
with Satan, the latter to be ever in the COM
posers service. But one night he handed to
Satan a violin, on which Diabolus played
such sweet music that the composer was
Il.